No further action for Ben Ainslie over World Championship incident

Ben Ainslie will not face any further punishment over the incident which saw him boarding a media boat at the World Championships.

Ainslie had felt that the boat in question had impeded his progress in the Perth race, causing him to finish second, and jumped aboard the boat to confront the crew.

Ben Ainslie won’t face any further disciplinary action (Getty)

He was disqualified from the ninth and tenth legs of the tournament as a result and had been worried the Royal Yachting Association would ban him from taking part in this summer’s Olympics.

The tribunal agreed that his action ‘amounted to a gross breach of good manners and conduct that brought the sport into disrepute’, but ruled that the action taken at the time was sufficient.

Ainslie said: ‘I deeply regret the incident but would like to thank all the governing bodies involved for their thorough investigation.’

He added he was looking forward to focusing on the Olympics.

In a statement, the RYA said that there should perhaps be more control of media boats, noting: ‘The tribunal also recognised that there was an apparent lack of active management of media boats at this and previous events, leading to repeated infringements of the provisions of the event media boat guidelines.’